Luis Enrique’s witty three-word response to Kylian Mbappe Newcastle United question

Newcastle host PSG in their first Champions League match at St James’ Park in over 20 years. PSG star Kylian Mbappe was previously deemed a fitness doubt for the match before playing the full 90 minutes in the 0-0 draw against Clermont Foot in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Enrique was at St James’ Park for his pre-match press conference on Tuesday as Mbappe and the PSG players trained briefly on the St James’ Park pitch. The PSG head coach responded to the majority of questions in Spanish which was then translated to French and then English.

But there was no need for a translator when he was asked whether Mbappe was ‘100% fit’ to start against Newcastle as he responded with a short but effective: “Si, oui, yes.”

It will be the first time Mbappe has visited St James’ Park during his professional career and Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe is relishing coming up against ‘the best player in the world’.

“It’ll be a difficult assignment for us defensively,” Howe admitted. “Our defensive record in the last few games has been really strong, and our performance as a team has been very strong.

“I think we’re going to need that team work. I never think it’s down to one player and I don’t believe in man to man marking, that won’t happen. It’ll be around our team structures and making sure we do a really good job in our units to nullify space.

“Fingers crossed we can do that and keep the best player in the world, at the moment, quiet.”